Bangladesh Climate-Resilient Ecosystem

Curriculum (BACUM)

Module 3: Forest Carbon Measurement and Monitoring

Module 3: Forest Carbon Measurement and Monitoring

SECTION I: FUNDAMENTALS OF FOREST CARBON IN REDD+ CONTEXT

1.3. Challenges for Forest-based Climate Change Mitigation

Forest Carbon Measurement and Monitoring
I. FUNDAMENTALS OF FOREST CARBON IN REDD+ CONTEXT
1.1. Forests, the Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change
1.2. The Roles of Forests and Forest Carbon in Global Climate Negotiations
1.3. Challenges for Forest-based Climate Change Mitigation

II. FOREST CARBON STOCKS AND IPCC GUIDELINES

2.1. Overview of Forest Carbon Pools (Stocks)
(FCMM)

2.2. Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF)

2.3. IPCC Guidelines for Forest Carbon Measurement and Monitoring
2.4. Reference Levels – Monitoring against a Baseline

III. FOREST CARBON MEASUREMENT AND MONITORING METHODS

3.1. Overview of Forest Carbon Measurement and Monitoring
3.2. Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC)
3.3. Field Sampling Design Methods
3.4. Forest Carbon Field Measurement Methods
3.5. Carbon Stock Calculation and Available Tools
3.6. Creating Activity Data and Emissions Factors
3.7. Considerations in Developing a Monitoring System
Acknowledgements
EXPERT CONTRIBUTORS SPECIFIC INPUTS
Prof. (Dr.) Manzoor Rashid Curriculum Development for all
UNIVERSITIES topics
Bangladesh Agricultural University Prof. (Dr.) Md. Danesh Miah REDD+, Forest Carbon
University of Chittagong Prof. (Dr.) Md. Jakariya Community NR Management,
Dhaka University Climate Change, Natural Resources
Management
Independent University, Bangladesh
Khulna University CREL STAFF CREL STAFF
Noakhali University of Science and Technology John A Dorr Utpal Dutta
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Abu Mostafa Kamal Uddin Ruhul Mohaiman Chowdhury
Sher-e-Bangla Agriculture University Kevin T. Kamp Rahima Khatun
North South University Paul Thompson Sultana Razia Zummi
Abdul Wahab Shams Uddin
Shahzia Mohsin Khan
DESIGN, LAYOUT AND CONTENT DEVELOPMENT: Ms. Chi Pham, Curriculum Development Expert, Bangkok, Thailand
Learning Objectives

At the end of the session, students will be able to:

• Distinguish the types of activities that make up REDD+
• Explain the major philosophical and practical challenges to
achieving REDD+
• Define the major stakeholders who have a role to play in
decisions about forest resource management
Why Include Forests in UN Agreements?

• “20% of the problem must be 20%

of the solution” (20% of global
emissions is from de-forestation)

• An opportunity to cut global CO2

emissions significantly, quickly,
and relatively inexpensively
Climate Change is a Global Problem

• REDD+ and other programs involve both developing and developed

nations.
 Developed nations: contributing technological capacity and
funding.
 Developing nations: finding alternative paths that allow them to
develop economically while protecting their forest resources
NAMAs

Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs):

• First developed in the Bali Road Map in 2007.
• Different countries will choose different actions.
• Developed nations will supply both financial and technological
support
• Developing nations: act to reduce GHG emissions while achieving
development goals
Examples of Actions

NAMAs (vary by country): some potential actions would

include
• progressive reduction in oil subsidies,
• poverty reduction through promotion of alternative income to
reduce illegal logging
• exploit more fully a country’s renewable energy resources,
especially geothermal and wind
Overview of REDD+ Activities

Reducing Emissions from:

1. Deforestation
2. Degradation
3. Conservation
4. Sustainable forest management +
5. Enhancing carbon stocks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0WeGw3h2yU#t=28
1. Reducing Emission from Deforestation

• Important to understand the drivers of

deforestation
• Common drivers are conversion to
industrial and small scale crop
production or pasture
• Important to focus on reducing areas of
forests actually cleared
Ex: Intensify crop and cattle production per
unit area of land to reduce demand for land
Deforestation vs Cattle Production
in Brazil
2. Reducing Emission from Degradation

• Degradation reductions can come

from improved forest management/
logging methods
• Protection from other factors, such
as fire
• Forests that are degraded are less
resistant to other stresses such as
drought or disease
3. Conservation of Forest

• Supporting the protection of intact (and not

currently threatened) forest resources in
developing countries
• Allows the participation of countries with
low historical rates of deforestation
• Countries with low historical rates of
deforestation are considered at risk if
deforestation activities are reduced in
other tropical countries and this is one way
to help avoid this unintended consequence
4. Sustainable Forest Management

• Improving the technical capacity for forest management in developing

countries
• Encouraging and supporting the development of more efficient
forest management
• Forestry techniques, such as reduced impact logging (RIL), better
plantation forestry where appropriate
Reduced Impact Logging
5. Enhancing Carbon Stocks

Increasing the amount of carbon stored in forest biomass and forest

soils through a variety of techniques (afforestation/ reforestation)
Challenges to Achieving REDD+

1.
Leakage 2.
Additionality 3.
Permanence 4.
Governance 5.
Equity
1. Leakage

• Leakage refers to the fact that while deforestation might be

avoided in one place, the deforestation might move to i)
another area of forest or ii) to a different country.
• Levels of leakage
- International
- Intra-national
1. Leakage
Area A Area B Total
Start of a forest protection project

Before Ongoing deforestation Undisturbed forests CO2 emissions

and degradation

After Deforestation and Deforestation and CO2 emissions

degradation reduced degradation commence

Change Emissions reduced Emissions increased No change

1.1 International Leakage

• International carbon leakage from REDD occurs when forest

conservation in one country directly or indirectly leads to
deforestation in another country.
• Leakage occurs when the scale of intervention is smaller
than the scale of the overall problem (Wunder, 2009).
Countries Included in UN REDD+
1.2 Intra-national Leakage

…leads to increased logging in

Champasack. Laos

E.g. A logging ban

in Savannakhet, Laos

• Leakage within national boundaries can be reported under a national carbon

accounting system.
• Many REDD+ programs will start with projects at the sub-national level and the
potential for intra-national leakage is a concern
2. Additionality

Emission level Baseline and Additionality

Additionality can be defined
as whether an emissions
reduction or removal would

Project reduction
have occurred in the absence

Additionality
of the activity in question. Reductions

Project emissions

Time
Start of Project
3. Permanence/Reversals
• Permanence is the length of time or the degree to which GHG are removed
from or kept out of the earth’s atmosphere.
• Example of Houphanh province in Laos:
Discussion: Permanence and Liability

• Who is liable (who pays the price) when a protected carbon

pool is lost? For example from deforestation, disease or fire?
• Does the liability belong to the developed nation or industry
which bought the carbon credit which no longer exists?
• Is the national or local government or who ever received the
payment responsible?
4. Governance

• Success of the REDD+ program requires good, efficient and

transparent governance of the forest resources
• Areas of concern:
- accounting of additionality (the actual effect of programs),
- accurate and honest measurements of carbon pools, and
- fair distribution of benefits
5. Equity
Q: Who benefits, who pays a cost and who makes the decisions about forest
management?
• Costs and benefits are not only those that can be thought of in terms of
economics
Equality Equity
Potential Stakeholders

• National, regional and local government agencies

• Local and/or indigenous people who live in or depend on the
forests for products or their livelihood
• International partners or those who are purchasing carbon
credits based on forest carbon pool protection
Classroom Exercise

Role play
• Students draw a name of an interested party
• Explain how you (in your role you have just drawn) use the forest and
why you have a right to a voice in the decisions related to
management of forests
Equity

• Distributive equity is concerned with the allocation among

stakeholders of costs, risks and benefits resulting from
environmental policy or resource management decisions, and
therefore represents primarily (but not exclusively) the economic
dimensions of equity or the equitable distribution of benefits
• Procedural equity refers to fairness in the political processes that
allocate resources and resolve disputes. It involves
representation, recognition/inclusion, voice and participation in
decision-making
Take Home Message
• Reasons to include forests in UN Climate • Challenges to implementing REDD+
Change agreements • Leakage
• Immediate and cost effective first step in • Additionality
global GHG emission reductions
• Permanence
• Allows both developed and non-
• Governance
developed countries to contribute
• Equity

• Individual activities of REDD+

• Deforestation
• Forest Degradation
• Conservation
• Sustainable Management
• Enhancing Carbon Stocks
Key References
• USAID. 2015. USAID LEAF‘s Climate Change Curriculum. USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia Forests
Program (USAID LEAF). Winrock International and US Forest Service. Bangkok, Thailand.
• Palmer. 2011. Property rights and liability for deforestation under REDD+: Implications for ‘permanence’ in
policy design. Ecological Economics 70: 571-576
• Wunder. 2009. Can payments for environmental services reduce deforestation and forest degradation? In:
Angelsen, A., et al. (Ed.), Realising REDD+: National Strategy and Policy Options. Centre for International
Forestry Research (CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia, pp. 213–224. Chapter 17.
• UCS 2011. Drivers of deforestation: How Leakage shifts Tropical Deforestation Around the Globe. Fact
Sheet
• Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2012. Multiple levels and multiple challenges for REDD+ in Angelson et al. editors.
Analysing REDD+ Challenges and Choices
• Palmer. 2011. Property rights and liability for deforestation under REDD+: Implications for ‘permanence’
in policy design. Ecological Economics 70: 571-576
References and Resources
• REDD platform of the UNFCCC.
Link http://unfccc.int/methods/redd/redd_web_platform/items/4531.php

• Stockhom Environment Institute.

Link http://www.co2offsetresearch.org/consumer/Additionality.html

• University of Michigan.
Link: http://animalagteam.msu.edu/animalagteam/carbon_market_opportunities_for_agriculture

• World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

Link: http://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/what-redd

• Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) resources on REDD+,

Link: http://www.cifor.org/online-library/browse/view-publication/publication/3805.html

• The REDD Desk. Link: http://theredddesk.org/

• What is REDD? Video from The REDD Desk. Link: https://youtu.be/D0WeGw3h2yU

References and Resources

The curriculum of USAID’s Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) in Bangladesh is a free
resource of teaching materials for university professors, teachers and climate change training experts.

Reproduction of CREL’s curriculum materials for educational or other non-commercial purposes is

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Suggested citation: Winrock International. 2016. USAID‘s Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods
(CREL). Winrock International. Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Disclaimer: The CREL’s curriculum is made possible by the support of the American People through the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of the curriculum do not
necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US Government.
USAID's Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) Project

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